Congratulations on the birth of Susanna Joy. You knew you could do it and you have!!! May you continue to find peace and joy with your family and have a lovely time with this precious babe. Don't worry about finding a sleep routine - I suspect your baby has ideas of her own about routines just as you had about her birth!
Much love,
Andrea
At 01:23 8/11/2002, Jaqueline Marwick wrote:
BIG BUNDLE OF JOY :))
Hi everyone!
It’s me, your Brazilian silent member again…
Most of you won’t remember me, but I’d like to sincerely thank all of you who have given me a few words of encouragement since I was 39 weeks pregnant and being pressured by medical staff to be induced.
This is a great mailing list and reading it has been most edifying, challenging and inspirational to me.
Thanks to Sally Westbury, Mary Murphy, Debby_M, Andrea Robertson, Vicki and especially Lois Wattis with whom I met in person a few times.
Above all I thank my own mother who gave birth to 5 children naturally and has counseled me to let my body do its own performance for my sake and the sake of baby Susanna Joy.
My doctor is known as the baby doctor in the area, assisting over 40 births per month and all labeled as “normal deliveries”.
I spent my whole pregnancy telling him how I wanted to have a natural birth this time (I was induced with my previous baby and didn’t have such a good experience), and how I wanted dim lights, no drugs, etc…. I had typed my birth plan very clearly and etc.
When it came to my 39 weeks he suddenly changed his discourse and told me I “needed” to be induced because my baby was “too big”. Midwives and RNs telling me that my placenta would get too mature, and/or my amniotic fluid would not be enough to feed my baby, etc etc etc.
They wanted to have a ctg trace every so often and one nurse even wanted to use some sort of vibrator on my belly to make my baby jump… Oh the horror I had to go through and had to be even rude or else they would have their way.
The doctor who is so hard to catch (yes, it seems doctors have a very precious time and clients’ time is usually not counted as valuable, not worth even peanuts) was suddenly ringing my house and making bookings with the hospital for my induction.
I kept saying NO and canceling these bookings and with the support of my husband we waited until my darling baby girl decided it was her time.
It was 10 days later, when I had just the one strong contraction and off we went to the hospital arriving there at 2:30 am to find out I was already fully dilated.
My membranes had not ruptured as yet, and the contractions were then quite strong. I asked to be on my knees as I found that to be the most comfortable position at the time.
As if things were not going fast enough, this midwife kept asking me to let her rupture my membranes as it “would get things going”. I would not give in; of course, it was only a matter of her waiting a little bit.
My membranes ruptured naturally at 3:20 am and my darling baby Susanna Joy was born at 3:40 am. All in all, it took us only 1 hour and 10 minutes from the time we arrived in the hospital.
As soon as I arrived I asked them to ring the doctor, but they rang much later, he arrived just after the birth, which was ok, as I was feeling he had not much to do apart from giving me a few stitches on my perineum area.
Susanna was born spontaneously weighing 4.604 kilos (or around 10.2 pounds in the old money), she was born very beautifully, and ready to breastfeed and even bite LOL!
She is now 3 and a half weeks old.
I haven’t written before as I now have my hands pretty full, we also have another baby (Daniel) who is just 18 months old older than Susanna.
Physically I am a wreck, as I still haven’t managed to get a routine with sleep etc, but I am so happy that my baby girl had her way and came to this world so well!
We are a very happy family here in WA!
And I am so glad that I could finally have the chance of giving birth naturally!
Now I need to join the TUT club (Two Under Two) _ double the work and double the blessings!
Love,
Jackie
----- Andrea Robertson Birth International * ACE Graphics * Associates in Childbirth Education
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